Allan's Zee
by BBC Addict
Summary: "Aye. Allan's zee!" Jamie said, trying to mimic the Doctor's phrase from earlier. "Don't, just don't," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. "Stick to being Scottish, if you please." The Doctor and Jamie's first trip in the TARDIS after being reunited. Follow-up to Incredibly Foreign, Comfortingly Familiar


"Where to, Jamie?"

A frown settled onto Jamie's face. This strange castle inside a box could move?

"I know." The Doctor hit a few buttons and spun a wheel. "Hang on tight!" he exclaimed with an impish grin as he pulled a lever.

"Can you control it now, then, Doctor?" The question popped out as naturally as could be.

"Told you I could control it if I wanted." The TARDIS materialized, throwing the Doctor and Jamie around the console several times. "You see?" He grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. "Come on."

Jamie followed but suddenly stopped. "Um, Doctor?" The Doctor turned. Jamie gestured to his bloodied kilt and and shirt.

The Doctor blinked at him several times before he understood. "Oh, right. Wouldn't do to go out and about looking like that, would it?" He whipped off his coat and tossed it onto its customary crook. "Shower first, I think. Then the wardrobe. Follow me."

A while later, Jamie emerged from the wardrobe. He felt odd-the Doctor didn't have any spare kilts laying around so he was wearing something called 'jeans.' He couldn't find anything quite like his own shirt, so he settled for a dark shirt with long sleeves and put another shirt with buttons over it.

The Doctor smiled. "All better?" he asked.

Jamie nodded. "Aye."

"Good. Allons-y!" he exclaimed with a wink.

Jamie just looked puzzled. "Allan's what?"

The Doctor's face fell. "It's French. I like to throw around phrases in other languages."

"You've never done that before," Jamie said with certainty.

"Every regeneration's different." Jamie's confusion radiated around the Doctor. "It's something that happens to me when I'm about to die. I...change. Into someone new. It's why I don't look like the Doctor you knew."

Jamie eyed him. "Aye. Your clothes fit for a start. And I haven't seen a recorder anywhere."

The Doctor laughed. "No, no more recorder. I've done other unusual things in my time-worn celery on my lapel; worn the most ghastly coat you've ever seen; I had a scarf once long enough to tie up a battalion of redcoats."

"Yer hair is spiky," Jamie added. "How d' ye do that?"

"I have my ways," the Doctor replied with a mysterious smile. "Ready to go now?"

"Aye. Allan's zee!" Jamie said, trying to mimic the Doctor's phrase from earlier.

"Don't, just don't," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. "Stick to being Scottish, if you please."

"Where are we?" Jamie asked as they walked. "And when are we?"

"Your memory is coming back faster than I expected," the Doctor commented. "England, 1979." He quietly added, "I was trying to get to this year once, with another friend of mine. We wound up in 1879 Scotland instead." He smiled faintly at the memory. "I stole your name, and your accent, for a bit. Queen Victoria wasn't too pleased when I suddenly started speaking normally again."

Jamie stopped, lost in thought. "When ye found me, ye said something about five hundred years. I thought ye were mad," he finally said. "Has it really been that long?"

The Doctor nodded. "About five hundred years, yes. When you get to be my age, you stop keeping track. I've regenerated eight times, seen things I could never have imagined. I don't recognize myself sometimes."

"I don't think ye've changed all that much, Doctor," Jamie said, laying a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

The Doctor smiled down at Jamie and briefly pressed his hand over Jamie's.

As they resumed walking, Jamie studied the beach they'd landed on. "Say, I remember this. We've been here before. The TARDIS landed out there and we had to row in. Why are we back?"

"Checking up on something," the Doctor replied as he continued on.

Victoria was strolling along the beach as she always did when she came back to visit the Harrises. She knew it was impossible, no, improbable, but she always hoped that on one of her walks she would bump into Jamie and the Doctor again.

She didn't think she'd made the wrong decision by staying behind, but she had to admit to herself that her life was 'normal' again—which really meant dull. She'd wanted peace back when every moment was filled with danger or at least the unexpected, and now she had all the peace anyone could wish for and she missed the thrill of traveling.

Victoria was rudely awakened from her musing by colliding with someone. As she apologized, she felt someone grasp her hand to steady her. She finally looked at the person she'd bumped into, then at his companion, then back at the other man. He was tall, thin, had spiky hair, warm brown eyes, and—

"Jamie McCrimmon!" she exclaimed.

Jamie looked quite surprised as the woman threw her arms around him and squeezed. "Aye, that's me," he said uncertainly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, finally stepping back, but not without grabbing both his hands in her own.

"I just turned up wi' the Doctor-"

"The Doctor?" Victoria looked at Jamie incredulously. "That's not the Doctor, Jamie. I've never seen this man before."

"It's me, Victoria," the Doctor insisted.

"I don't believe you."

"Your father, Edward, saved me from being killed by the Daleks. We stopped Cybermen and Yeti and Ice Warriors and Salamander, and we finally put your screams to good use here against the weed creatures. Believe me now?"

Jamie had only been half-listening to the Doctor. He felt as if a veritable flood of memories was swamping him. Unable to contain himself, he burst out, "Victoria Waterfield, why did ye leave us?"

Victoria's expression was sad as she softly laid a hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Jamie, but I had to. I told you I was tired of being frightened all the time, getting into one scrape after another with no time to breathe in between."

"I loved you, Victoria," Jamie muttered, intently studying the (non-creature forming) seaweed that littered the beach.

"I loved you, too, Jamie, but it wasn't meant to be. We were just children on an adventure." She gently raised Jamie's head, forcing him to look at her. He eventually nodded sadly. Victoria kissed his cheek. "Come on, Jamie, Doctor," she added after a pause. "You can have dinner with us. I know Frank and Maggie will be happy to see you both."

"So, Doctor, you look a bit different," Frank Harris said.

"I know. It's called regeneration. If a Time Lord, that's what I am; you're humans, I'm a Time Lord; if a Time Lord is mortally wounded, he or she will usually regenerate. It's a process that changes every single cell in the body, resulting in a different appearance and different personality. It can be a bit...dodgy. It never goes smoothly for me..." the Doctor drifted off.

"How many times have you regenerated, Doctor?" Victoria asked.

"This is my tenth body."

Victoria and Maggie widened their eyes. "How old are you, Doctor?" Maggie asked.

"I was just talking about this with Jamie earlier. I'm," the Doctor blew out his breath, "well over 900 now. I might be pushing 1,000."

"But, Doctor, you told me you were 450," Victoria complained.

"I was when you asked. It's been a long time for me, Victoria."

"But how can five hundreds have passed? Jamie couldn't live that long! He doesn't look much older. He looks younger than I do, in fact."

"Aye, I was beginnin' to wonder that too."

The Doctor sighed. "After we left you, Victoria, the next place we wound up was a space station where we met Zoe Heriot. She traveled with us until we were stuck in the war games. After that, the Time Lords decided to punish me for interfering with other planets. Jamie and Zoe had most of their memories wiped and I was forced to regenerate and exiled to Earth, unable to travel. It wasn't all bad though-remember Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart? I worked with him quite a lot—the Brigadier." The Doctor smiled fondly. "After my next regeneration, I was able to travel again and I haven't stopped since."

The rest of the evening passed with the Doctor telling stories of his travels and his companions. Finally, reluctantly, he stood. "It's really been a lovely evening. Frank, Maggie, thank you for dinner. And for taking such good care of Victoria."

"It was our pleasure, Doctor," Maggie said. She gave both the Doctor and Jamie a hug and Frank shook their hands.

"Can I walk you back to the TARDIS?" Victoria asked. "I'd love to see it again."

"We'd love that," the Doctor answered.

The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS. "Would you like to come in, just for a bit? I promise I won't take off, unless you want to."

Victoria laughed. "I'd never get back here, Doctor."

Jamie couldn't hold back his laughter as the Doctor looked offended. "Just you watch, Victoria!" the Doctor exclaimed as he pulled a lever and the TARDIS dematerialized.

As the TARDIS rematerialized, Victoria looked skeptical. "Back where we started, you say?"

"Of course. I took you somewhere nice, no aliens or monsters, and I brought you back. It's only been a couple of minutes since we left. Nobody will even know you were gone."

Victoria pushed open the doors. "Well, it looks like the right place. We'll see about the time." She turned and walked back up the ramp. "It was wonderful to see you again, Doctor," she said, giving him a hug. The Doctor didn't reply; he just tightened his hold on her for a moment before letting go.

"Goodbye, Jamie," she said.

"Goodbye, Victoria," Jamie said. They stood stiffly for a moment before Jamie caved. "Och, come here," he said, giving her a bear hug.

Victoria left the TARDIS and stood watching as it dematerialized. She smiled to herself as she walked back to the house. As she went inside, she found Maggie and Frank sitting in the kitchen. "Victoria! We weren't expecting you until tomorrow!" Maggie cried, giving her adopted daughter a hug.

**A/N: I don't know anybody's exact ages, so I'm rather making it up. As the Doctor says, who keeps track, anyway? Victoria is in her upper 20s and Jamie is in his early 20s. Why, you ask? Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.**


End file.
